Empire
by alexrusso89
Summary: Set in arrowverse 1313 inspired by the batman arkham underworld game The riddler has escaped from Arkham Asylum given knowledge from a god like source he sets his most crazy plan yet in motion creating his own empire and his own followers called the horde Can batman stop them? Or will gotham be the riddler's ?


The riddler may have been many things, but one thing he was not, was unprepared.

Riddler paced about inside his cell. The small hallway barely lit , the faint light reaching about a foot into the confined room.

Riddler suddenly heard the door leading into the hallway open and footsteps start down the end . As they came closer, Riddler moved to the cell door and peered through the small, iron-barred window. And that was when he saw who was making the footsteps. It was one of the prison guards, the only one Riddler could trust to do this sort of thing.

Her name was Jessikah . Before his trip to Toronto, Riddler had spent quite the amount of time interacting with Jessikah . He learned some interesting things about her : for one, she had no friends, and almost no family left save for a deranged cousin locked away in this lunatic asylum. So when Riddler showed her the slightest bit of kindness, Jessikah was all too eager to do whatever was asked of him.

In her hands, Jessikah carried a small oil lamp and a dinner tray, complete with cutlery and silver lid on top. She walked up to the door and peered into the cell. She was immediately met with Riddler's gaze, and jumped a bit, not expecting him to be standing right behind the door. Jessikah nervously looked back at the hallway door , to make sure no one else was around to listen.

"I-I have brought what you asked" she whispered.

"Good. Open the door," Riddler replied.

Jessikah set down her lamp for a moment and fumbled around in her pocket for a single key. She drew it out, put it into the cell's keyhole, and turned it. A quiet click was heard as the door unlocked. Jessikah put the key away, picked up the lamp, and walked in. As the lamp shone over the cell's walls, one could see that the entire room was barren, save for the two that already stood inside it.

Without waiting for Jessikah to do anything, Riddler reached for the tray himself, took it from her, and removed the silver lid. Underneath it, instead of the usual meal, there lay two things: a black chalkpiece, and an odd-looking book.

"Thank you, Jessikah. Be sure to come back in exactly thirty minutes," said Riddler

"You sure ?"

"You'll still need to come back for the tray, will you not?"

"O-oh, of course. Very well then..." As Jessikah started to walk out the door, shestopped and turned back for a moment.

"Sir , I...whatever you're trying to do, I hope it works out for you, and...I'm glad to be your friend. If there's anything else I can do, please don't hesitate to ask."

Riddler stifled the urge to chuckle. "I'm glad to be your friend, too. But that will be all, for now."

Jessikah gave a quick nod and turned, leaving the room, shutting the door behind her and locking it. Riddler waited until her footsteps grew faint, then picked up the book off the tray.

Riddler surveyed the dark-brown, leathery tome. It was an exceedingly rare book, and Riddler only knew of a handful of other copies in the world that existed. One of them was located at the British Museum, while another rotted away in a university in the United States. He was not certain if the book's cover was made out of an animal's hide, or something a bit more gruesome. But he was certain of the nature of the book.

The book Riddler held was the Kitab Al-Azif; the Book of Dead Names. The Necronomicon.

Ridder not normally a believer in magic but he had seen the power of magic had decided when he heard about the book he had to sort after it . He had first found the book tucked away in the castle library two years prior. It was hidden behind several large encyclopedias, almost as though whoever put it there didn't want it out in the open. Once he discovered it, Riddler had spent hours poring over its contents, and saw the potential for untold power that lay in its yellowed pages. Until now, he had always been too nervous to actually do anything the book described, but now, he had little choice. Once the ritual was complete, Riddler was certain he would command forces that would make him the most powerful king to ever rule , he would take over Gotham first , then he would expand his empire, taking over all the other kingdoms, every other nation, until there was nothing left to conquer.

King Riddler ,of Earth. Yes, he quite liked the sound of it.

Riddler carefully opened the Necronomicon, and turned to a specific page,. Taking the black chalkpiece from the tray, Riddler started to scrawl, on the cell's stone floor, the strange symbol that the page depicted. Riddler took his time drawing out each line; every angle needed to be precise if this little summoning was to go smoothly.

As he worked, Riddler's thoughts turned to Gotham , the place where he was betrayed, Even though it had already been a few days, he still felt rage towards those who put him in his current predicament; batman and the gotham police department . Riddler imagined that everyone had a good laugh over him After today, though, nobody would ever laugh at him again.

After finally finishing his delicate task, Riddler stood back to survey the entire thing. He felt a bit proud of himself. He had just completed a sigil from the Necronomicon, on a stone floor, using nothing for lighting but the small torch outside his door. The sigil's various intersecting lines formed a rough, hexagonal shape in its center. Several bizarre characters, in a long-dead language, were written around the sigil.

He didn't get too much time to admire his handiwork, as he heard the hallway's door open once more, footsteps descending the hall . It looked like his thirty minutes were up.

Riddler quickly tossed aside his chalk and picked up the dinner knife that came with the tray, tucking it behind his left hand, as a prison guard came up to the door.

"What are you doing nigma?"

" there's one more thing I need you to do."

"Oh and whats that?"

Garland indicated the sigil. "Please step inside, and stand over this."

The guard paused for a moment at the odd request, but unlocked the door anyway, once again walking into the room. His lamp allowed him to easily make out the detailed patterns that lay on the floor.

"You want me...to stand here?" he asked.

"Yes, guard. In the center of it, please."

The guard. didn't hesitate this time. The quicker this was over the quicker he was heading home, he stepped into the hexagonal center of the sigil. He was curious as to why Riddler requested this of him, though.

"But, what purpose do I serve by doing this?", the guard asked.

Riddler stepped up behind him and used the knife to quickly stab into the guard's neck, puncturing his carotid artery. He jerked the blade free, and fresh crimson blood spurted from the wound. A look of shock came over the guards face as he clutched at his neck, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

"Oh, nothing important," Riddler smirked.

As the guard fell to his knees, Riddler knelt down and took the lamp from him , he had somehow managed to hold onto it, even after getting sliced. With his free hand, Riddler grabbed him by the back of the head, and shoved him face-first into the center of the sigil. His blood pooled around it and obscured the angled lines and characters.

There was only one more thing to do. Riddler turned down the oil lamp's wick, then blew out the flame. The cell was now in almost complete darkness.

The Riddler waited, and waited. And waited some more. Did he get an angle wrong? Perhaps he hadn't gotten enough of the guard's blood on the sigil? The Riddler was about to give up, go and turn himself in to the guards, but what happened next immediately made him scratch that option from his mind. A small, dark-blue portal began to form around the center of the sigil. For a brief moment, it lit up the cell, and The Riddler could see the guard's body, blood and all, get sucked through the tiny portal. It then shrank until it disappeared.

There was darkness once more, but Riddler noticed that it was different this time; before, there was still the barely lit hallway , providing a slight amount of visibility. Now, however, there was no light at all, anywhere. This darkness felt thick and heavy, foreboding and sinister.

The Riddler sensed something in the room with him. He immediately felt afraid, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He cleared his throat, and tried to speak.

"H-hello?"

There was silence for a moment, then, whatever was standing a few feet away from Riddler spoke.

"For what purpose did you call me, human?"

The thing's voice grated on Riddler's ears. It sounded harsh, cruel. He wasn't sure if it was making audible noise, or if it was putting words directly into his mind. Riddler took a deep breath, then replied.

"I have summoned you, because there is something you have, that I desire."

"And what is it that you desire?"

"I desire your knowledge, and your power."

There was another, brief moment of silence.

"You are not fit for power, of any sort."

The Riddler was taken aback at this. His fear began to be replaced by anger. He was not fit for power?

"I did not go to all this trouble, scribbling out that sigil, cutting that stupid bastard's throat, and performing a summoning ritual, just to hear you tell me that I don't deserve power! Do you realize who you are speaking to?" said Riddler his voice raised.

He listened for a reply, and after a moment, the thing spoke again.

"You would do well to not attempt to order me about, human," it hissed.

"And you would do well to recognize authority when you see it! I summoned you, I am your master now! You do as I say! Now...now give me your power! I command you!" Riddler angrily replied.

This time the thing waited almost half a minute before speaking.

"You are but a mere human, a bag of flesh. You are as small and insignificant to me, as a piece of bacteria is small and insignificant to a galaxy. You are a petty animal, with petty desires: for conquering, for bloodshed. And there will be much conquering and bloodshed in the future, but you...you will not have any part in it."

Riddler could not handle this. He yelled in frustration, getting down on his hands and knees, pounding his fists on the floor.

Riddler pounded his fists on the floor one last time. His outburst had caused him to be short of breath, with his hands experiencing a dull pain from hitting them off of stone. He stood back up, breathing heavily.

There was a silence, with no reply from the being. Riddler stood in the dark with gritted teeth, awaiting an answer. For five long minutes, nothing happened. Had the thing left?

Just when Riddler was about to give up, he heard it speak, this time in an even lower, more grating voice.

"You are not fit for power, but perhaps...perhaps, you are fit for knowledge. Yes, I believe I will share some of it with you."

Riddler was suddenly overcome with fear once more, his anger quickly evaporating like steam. He felt like running, but his legs didn't seem to want to work. He stood rooted to the ground.

Riddler felt four ropey, tentacle-like appendages snake up his legs, his chest, then around his head. He gave a cry of pain as two of them shot into his nostrils, the other two inserting themselves into his ears.

Images and sounds began to quickly flood through Riddler's senses. In his mind's eye, he saw faint, outlined visions of frightening, nameless things; visions of a race of fishmen and their two monstrous leaders; visions of a malevolent, rust-colored, cloud-like entity; visions of a colossal, squid-like creature slumbering in a drowned city with impossible geometry; visions of an amorphous, tentacled horror floating in a dark void.

One more vision flashed through Riddler's mind; that of a man, clad in the garb of a pharaoh. But this "pharaoh" didn't look right. He was 9 feet tall, his skin was black as the night, and he had no mouth. For some unknown reason, Riddler felt there was a connection between this "man" and the thing he had summoned.

The "pharaoh's" eyes were completely white, piercing through to the soul. Riddler saw, in his head, those eyes staring into him. They stared, and stared, and stared, until Riddler couldn't take it anymore.

"LET GO OF ME!" the frightened Riddler shrieked. To his surprise, the being listened, drawing its roped tendrils out of his ears and nose and snaking off his body completely.

Riddler had enough. No kingdom was worth this. Remembering that the cell door was still unlocked after his now-deceased guard had gone into the room, Riddler wrenched it open and stumbled out. He was greeted with the warm relief of the lit hallway. The darkness must have all been contained in the room he just left. Riddler grabbed the small lamp off the wall, his only source of light left, and held onto it tightly. He was going to walk up those stone stairs, go right up to the guards, and demand to be moved to a cell in an entirely different location. Preferably one that was well-lit and surrounded by people. Or, alternatively, they would execute him on the spot after seeing that he left his cell. Riddler wasn't sure he cared which happened. He just wanted to get out of there.

As Riddler was about to start walking, he made the mistake of looking back into the cell.

Somehow, that thick darkness had disappeared altogether, and the torch allowed him to see exactly what it was that he had been talking to inside that cramped room. While his visions had only been shadowy glimpses, this was fully detailed. The thing he saw looked horrible, and could not exist in any sane universe.

It was a constantly-shifting, black mass of eyes, claws, legs, and tendrils. Parts of it would seemingly phase out of existence and reappear a few feet beside their original positions. It had length, width, height, and about six or seven other dimensions to it.

Before his mind snapped completely, Riddler saw the thing's teeth-like formations, all 4,158 of them, twist into what could only be described as a very, very nasty smile.

When the guards watching over the prison's entrance had seen Jesskah come back five minutes ago, suddenly a van pulled up and four thugs got , the guards were quickly gunned down , Jessikah had soon opened the security gates and the Riddler soon walked out of Arkham asylum Jessikah followed behind , the four thugs soon joined the riddler inside the van

" what now boss?" Jessikah asked

" thats simple my sidekick we take over gotham "

The van pulled Away and sped through the streets of gotham , the Batmobile sped past going towards Arkham asylum , the van soon pulled into a beat up run down house , the house was a run down lounge room and garage behind that was a high tech control room a security room a vault room a inner sanctum and living quarters , the riddler walked through the house

" this will do nicely "

" sir whats next ?"

The Riddler smirked

" we build my empire i believe on the outskirts of gotham theres a cult"

" you want us to recruit this cult?" Jessikah asked

" yes if we can make them worship me then we can start to take over this city "

Jessikah nodded

" i'll get then car then boss " jessikah walked out of the control room , riddler turned to the thugs

" one of you come with us the other three stay here "

The thugs grunted and nodded and one stepped forward , the Riddler and the thug walked into the garage a small four seater green car , Jessikah was in the drivers seat as soon as Riddler and the thug were in the car , jessikah started the car and pulled out of the garage

" gotham city will be mine " the Riddler smirked


End file.
